Technical Field
The present invention relates to hearing instruments and particularly to configuration of a hearing instrument based on a mental state of a user. The invention specifically relates to a method for configuring one or more settings of the hearing instrument in response to detection of a particular mental state of the user wearing the hearing instrument.
Related Art
Hearing instruments, such as hearing aids, are electroacoustic devices often used for enhancing sound by ways of amplification and modulation. A hearing instrument gathers sound from surroundings, amplifies the sound and directs the sound to ear canals of the user wearing the hearing instrument. For example, in case of a hearing impaired person, a hearing instrument may be configured to amplify sound coming from a frontal direction and cancel noise generated from all other audio signals, such that clear sound is perceived by the hearing impaired person, wearing the hearing instrument. The amplification and/or modulation are typically performed based upon a hearing profile of the hearing impaired person.
Conventionally, hearing instruments are fitted in a user's ear in an in the ear (ITE) configuration, a behind the ear (BTE) configuration, an in the canal (ITC) configuration, etc. In some cases, when the user is in a relaxation state, the user usually tends to either remove the hearing instrument from the ear, or switch off the hearing instrument such that no sound reaches the user in the relaxation state. However, in such cases, the user may not even hear normal sounds that the user otherwise wishes to hear, for example, another person speaking with the user, ringing of a telephone, a door bell, etc., sounds that may signal emergency, and the like. In addition, the user may also face problems if the hearing instrument is misplaced or permanently lost. Further, some types of hearing instruments may be difficult to repeatedly remove and put on.
User configurable hearing instruments are known in the art. These hearing instruments are configured by a user according to particular needs of the user. The user can program the configurable hearing instrument using a computing device. Once the configuration is complete, the hearing instrument may work according to the configured settings. However, the user may require different types of configurations of the hearing instruments for different needs. For example, a user may want to have a decibel level of the sound, of the hearing instrument, automatically adjusted based on a particular mental state of the user. However, to change the settings repeatedly may be cumbersome for the user.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,330,339 discloses an invention intended to reduce the power consumption of a hearing aid chip by taking into account the users behavior, e.g. to reduce power if the hearing aid user is sleeping, in motion (accelerators) or if it is detected that the hearing aid user does not wear them, or if a time clock says that it is night, and thereby power could be reduced (by changing to various power saving modes).
It is an object of the present invention to provide a hearing instrument without the above disadvantages. It is a further object to provide a method for operating the hearing instrument which allows the hearing instrument to operate without the above disadvantages.